Adoration
by Shauds02
Summary: (Earth-3) It's Stephanie's job to kill a guy it's Jason's job to keep a guy from getting killed. There's a conflict of interests here but neither of them are THAT worried about the outcome.


Stephanie knew where Jason was, that he was watching her, when someone came into his territory for an assassination he always watched, though with anyone else, he usually put a stop to it much sooner. She was probably wondering whether or not he was going to leave her to it or swoop in and save the guy. Jason watched, and he let her wonder. Then she cornered her target against the chain link fence surrounding what had once been a well intentioned police station, and now served as an infrequent base of the Red Hood, and well, he did have a reputation to keep.

Jason dove down from his perch and landed between the newest Owlgirl with a heavy thump, his arms outstretched with both guns drawn and ready.

"Oh thank god." Mister Victim breathed and scrambled to his feet behind Jason.

"You okay there?" Jason looked over his shoulder, cocking his head slightly to convey some emotion though the helmet, the guy could decide for himself what that emotion was, he nodded shakily, opened his mouth to say something else, but Stephanie's voice rang out first.

"Oh come on!" She threw her hands up in the air. The disappearance of the sharp, predatory smile she'd been wearing until only a few moments ago, a true loss worth mourning as far as Jason was concerned.

Guy flinched back at her outburst, his feet scraping against the gravelly concrete as he tried to scramble away.

"Stay there." Jason said, keeping his eyes on the girl. "It's not safe." And he wasn't letting the guy leave just yet.

"I need him." She didn't even make a show of hostility, though Jason knew from experience, that could change with the flip of a switch. "Come on, just this once." She stepped closer pulling out a wickedly curved knife, electric, going off the yellow band at the hilt, but she'd been known to switch those up

"Just this once passed us by seventeen 'just this once's' ago." Jason pressed the blade way from his face with the tip of his gloved finger, it was sharp enough to cut through the fabric and clink against the metal alloy beneath.

"Oracle really wants this one, and I can pass along that you helped me out, so help me out here?" She batted her eyelashes at him, opening them ridiculously wide. "She'd probably toss a favour your way."

"She'd just end up bragging to the Owls, and then they'd get jealous, and come after me again, and..." H waved him hand in circles around his head. "Haven't I spent enough time dead because of you already?" Not that he minded wasn't used to it already, but seeing the Owl's smug faces when they brought him off the ice and tried to 're-educate' him again was just fucking annoying.

"Hey, that's not fair, I helped you get out." She pouted, stepping closer towards him. "It's important." She chewed on her lower lip, face scrunching up and her eyes going distant, head tilting a little while she thought. Jason watched, he loved watching her, how easy she was to read, something so refreshing after the emotional suppression just about everyone he was around anymore had gone through.

Sometimes, when Jason's head was a little clearer, he thought he could never be more grateful for the fact that Stephanie was never going to be a Talon, that Owlman had tossed her aside in the mission that had led to Black Mask and friends trying to rehabilitate her. But he tended to shut those kinds of thoughts down very fast, because then he'd start to wish that they'd succeeded, and that someone could have done the same for...

"She'll give me the electrum."

"I'm sorry, what?" Jason stepped back from her, sure he'd just sunken too deep in his thoughts and heard her wrong.

"Electrum" She repeated, features gone stone set. Electrum. Immortality. The reason she'd wanted to be Talon in the first place, the only reason anyone who actually **wanted** to be talon ever wanted to be Talon - aside from that psycopath who'd come right after Jason of course, **nobody** knew what he wanted, and nobody really wanted to know either.

Electum, Jason thought, was a detail worth some consideration. Stephanie seeing his hesitance as an okay, stepped again to where the man was cowering behind Jason, her blade at the ready.

Jason gripped her arm before she got very far, shaking his head as he spoke. "Sorry Spoiler, ya shouldna chased him this far into my territory, 'f I can't protect him HERE it'll send a bad message."

"Oh yeah?" She stepped forwards again, deeper into Jason's personal space. and harshly jabbed a finger at his chest "And after what he overheard, what kind of message you think he's gonna start sending out the second he's outta you sight, hm?"

Jason snorted and lightly gripped her chin, leaned down and pulled her up so her face was right in front of his. "You just let me worry about that, m'kay, Sunshine?"

"Sure." She smiled a smile that would have been innocent on someone less... Stephanie, rested both her hands on his chest and brought her lips to brush against his ear. Jason froze as soon as he caught a whiff of her cherry scented perfume. God he wished, they weren't in costume right then. She whispered in his ear. "Think you're gonna need some help tracking him down for that, oh noble hero?"

"Huh?" Jason pulled away just enough to frown down her.

She kept her guileless smile and pointed. Jason's eyes followed her clawed fingertip towards the entrance of the bombed out police station.

"Oh, come on!" He threw up his hands, shaking his head before he took aim, too late, she'd already tossed the knife - it **had** been the electric one - and his last step out of the station was also his last step anywhere.

Jason rushed over and dropped to his knees besides the guy, he himself had choked on his own blood enough times in the past to know what this guy was going through, if it hadn't been quite so many times, he might have even felt sorry for him. Best to end his suffering quickly at least, couldn't have him blabbing to an EMT. Jason slipped a needle into his hands and made as though he was going to check for a pulse. The guy grabbed his wrist before he could, a weak hold, but Jason let it stop him.

"Though' y'where..." He pulled in a deep, rattling breath that Jason knew wasn't filling his lungs, "... hero."

"No such things as heroes." Jason shook his head, pressed the needle into the bundle of nerves that would knock the guy guy out, and watched the struggles stop before he turned back to where Stephanie was lurking in the shadows right behind the doorway and let out a very heavy, very loud sigh that she definitely heard.

"Really?"

"What?" She turned up her palms. "We both know you were gonna let me do it anyway."

"Please." Jason rolled his eyes as he approached her. "I don't like you THAT much."

She snorted and backed up, out of view from anyone who may have felt the urge to eavesdrop so she could pull off her cowl. "You **adore** me."

"No I don't." Yes he did, and he was getting kind of tired of Oracle taking advantage of that and sending Stephanie in every time she wanted something out of Jason's territory.

"Yes you do." She wrapped her arms around him as soon as he was in reach began drawing him further into the building, towards the well hidden entrance of Jason's base. "You wanna avenge him Jay? We can put on a real good show of it for all your little fans."

"Ha!" Jason curled one arm around her waist. "Wouldn't wanna spoil Oracle's image by making it look like her new Owlgirl can't get the job done without a fuss."

"You don't care about Oracle's image." Her fingers moved to the lip of the helmet, feeling for the seal the kept the thing on his head.

"'Why the complaining, 'f she's pissed ya don't get the electrum, do ya?" The helmet was pulled from his head and Jason shook out the hair that had been sticking uncomfortably to his head. After all the trouble Stephanie had gone through to steal the stuff from The Court, it being given to anyone else would have pissed Jason off enough to really screw something in that whole operation up.

"I can keep trying for it." She shrugged and dropped the helmet. "It's not that big of a deal and you being mad at me'll suck a little more than knowing I can drop dead at any second." Jason raised his brows at her and she held up her thumb and forefinger a small distance apart. "**Tiiiiny** bit more."

He wasn't sure whether the vague, warmish feeling in his gut was pleasure that she was willing to put off what she's been working on for years, or because he was pissed that she couldn't have decided she was willing to put it off **before** she killed the guy. That right there was why Jason didn't't like killing, impossible to undo and such a waste of resources when people were so very grateful when they were allowed to keep on going. It's permanence also meant that being moody about it wouldnt help.

"Ah." Jason kicked the door shut behind them. "In that case, maybe I don't want you to get the electrum at all, they grey skin's not really my thing."

"It's **my** thing." She rubbed at Jason's cheek, taking off some of his flesh coloured makeup, then pressed a soft kiss against the patch of grey she'd revealed, "It's really," a kiss on his other cheek, "really," and on on his chin, "my thing." Her next kiss landed on his lips, and Jason sunk into it, pulling her flush against him, holding on to her, his lungs ached they way they shouldn't have been able to any more, she sucked away a breath he no longer had, and when she pulled away, the first thing he missed was the warmth he shouldn't have been able to feel. "I think I can pull it off."

She could have, but the grey skin wasn't really the problem there.

"I know." Jason cupped her face in both his hands, eyes tracing over her features, she'd be just as beautiful with a Talon's grey skin, and that wouldn't have bothered him either way, it was everything else that came with it... Then again. "But I'm not really mad at you anyway." He shrugged and pulled her in close again. "When's The Tower expecting you back."

"Not for a long time." She got grasped a handful of his hair and used it to tug him down, bring his lips closer to hers. "They knew where I was going, and how much I adore out little hang outs." She kissed him again, and there was a spark of something electric in his chest, something he couldn't put into words.

After the electrum, Jason shouldn't have been able to feel the things he did when he was with her, and she was too tenacious to have it killing off any more inside her. Besides, Jason thought as they broke away so she could breath, there was a lot more the could do if the **both** of them were immortal.


End file.
